Why Seacoast voters said 'no' to spending millions on big projects

All voters have their reasons for voting for or against spending big bucks at the polls.

Jason Schreiber

All voters have their reasons for voting for or against spending big bucks at the polls.

Skip Heal didn't support a $1.2 million proposal to build a new Kensington police station with an emergency management office and town offices because he didn't like the plan.

Heal said he felt the proposal should have included the fire department, too.

"I see this new building as more than a police station. It's more like a safety complex," Heal said.

In Newmarket, Al Zink voted against a $45 million plan to build a new junior/senior high school, arguing Newmarket voters need options other than building a new school. "It's not an affordable solution for Newmarket," he insisted.

Whatever their reasons, voters in Kensington and Newmarket defeated the proposals, and they weren't the only ones who shot down big building projects in Tuesday's election.

The story was the same in Hampton Falls, where voters rejected a $6.6 million renovation and addition to Lincoln Akerman School.

And in North Hampton, voters killed a $5.8 million proposal to renovate the municipal complex.

While some blame the failures on price tags and others cite misinformation in the days before the elections, Exeter demographer Peter Francese thinks he knows why some were defeated, especially the school proposals.

According to Francese, the state's aging population is playing a big role at the polls.

"We are, demographically speaking, the third oldest state in the nation and one of the fastest aging states in the country. We have aged very, very rapidly. Many tens of thousands of young adults who would have a stake in the future of better schools or reconstructed schools are simply not here," the 73-year-old Francese said Wednesday.

New Hampshire's younger population has dwindled over the past 10 to 15 years, he said, with some driven out because they couldn't find affordable housing.

The vanishing younger population has left a big hole in New Hampshire's 25 to 44 age group, Francese said.

The median age of homeowners in New Hampshire is now 55, Francese said, meaning that half are nearing retirement age or are 65 and older.

"The older people get, the more they are not terribly interested in paying for a school for somebody else's children," Francese said. "It is my personal belief that here in New Hampshire, unlike other states in New England, we have an extremely unhealthy obsession with not paying any taxes, and it's unhealthy for our long-term economic health."

But New Hampshire's older population isn't the only factor.

"I think there are young people who are going to vote against these things, too," said Andy Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, which gathers public opinion polling data.

Smith said it's also becoming more difficult to pass school projects because of the lack of state building aid that was once available to help ease the burden on local taxpayers.

"The second things is, the economy still hasn't recovered that much and people are concerned about their own personal (finances). It's a whole lot easier to vote against something with dollar figures attached to it than to vote for it, especially when the economy is down," Smith said.

As supporters of the failed projects begin picking up the pieces to plan their next move, Smith said it will be important for local town and school boards and other groups to go back to the drawing board to figure out why they were defeated.

"Was it too expensive? Was it the wrong spot?" he said.

All too often, Smith said, supporters of a big-ticket project "talk to the usual suspects" who attend selectmen and school board meetings but don't broaden their argument until election time.

Smith said it takes a good marketing plan to build support, and that can take a lot of time and effort.

"If they want to pass it, that's the kind of thing they need to do," he said.

Zink said he doesn't know what the answer is for Newmarket, but added that the vote "indicates to me that the community of Newmarket needs to work together to solve this problem." Having a backup plan is also a good idea, he said.

In Kensington's case, the police department plans to replace the small trailer it's been working in with two new double-wide trailers, but they will cost $53,000 a year to rent.

"For $70,000 (a year), we could have had a new building," Kensington Police Chief Mike Sielicki said.

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